The Wren and The Tiger
by AnimalXpert0544
Summary: A mysterious prophecy. A loner looking for trouble. A warrior overflowing with unresolved anger. What is Wrenfeather's closest friend hiding? What is StarClan trying to say? And most importantly, who is Ebony, and what does she want? These questions need answers, and Wrenfeather finds herself sinking fast and deep as she tries to find them.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Tigerstripe had been especially distant during the last moon, and Wrenfeather couldn't figure out why.

Not only had she snapped at her about showing up late for the dusk patrol, but she'd eaten alone more often recently. She'd looked absent and uninterested, and Wrenfeather found herself unnerved. Tigerstripe had never behaved strangely before – sure, she'd always been a little more rough-around-the-edges than Wrenfeather, and she'd always been a little ignorantly rude. But this? This was new. And it was worrying her.

 _I wonder what she's dreaming about_ , the tabby found herself wondering one chilly leaf-fall night as she watched her sister in her nest by the den's entrance. The patterns the white moonlight made on the calico's fur made her look splotchier than she already was, creating the illusion that she had been splashed with twoleg paint – a very unfamiliar coloration, as Wrenfeather was used to comparing Tigerstripe's fur to a black blanket laid out over her shoulders and spine. She was asleep, whiskers twitching and paws shuffling every few seconds. She was obviously more at peace than Firestorm, who lay in his nest beside Wrenfeather's.

Perhaps the orange and white tom was the cat she should have been worried about, and not Tigerstripe. He was snorting and growling in his sleep, one foreleg hanging over the edge of his nest as he scraped at the sand with his claws. Maybe he was fighting some RiverClan warrior in his sleep, or chasing a rabbit through the forest. Wrenfeather purred.

On the other side of the den was Grayfoot, lying flat out on his back, belly-up in his nest. The hollow was filled with his soft, rhythmic snoring, a familiar sound which had been heard by every cat in the clan at least once or twice. His mouth half-open, he looked like a youngster pretending to be defeated in a kitten game of 'turf-war'. Wrenfeather could remember playing the game with him and Bleakcloud when they still lived in the nursery, and the thought made her nostalgic. She sighed wistfully, laying her head between her forepaws.

It was almost moonhigh, and Wrenfeather knew it was time she was asleep. So she closed her eyes and wrapped her tail more tightly around her body, shutting out Grayfoot's soft snores, Firestorm's grumbles and Tigerstripe's shuffles.

It was a moment later that she was awakened by the crackle of bracken and the sleepy mumble of another cat. She opened one eye and was greeted with the sight of a calico cat half-standing in her nest, staring with huge amber eyes out into the clearing. _Tigerstripe?_ She questioned silently. _What are you doing? Were you awake this whole time? Go back to sleep, mouse-brain, or Blackstar will have your tail._ But she didn't say what she was thinking, fearing that she would only receive back lash as a response. Instead, she squinted, trying to look as if she were sleeping.

The she-cat looked around as if to check that every other cat was asleep. Seemingly satisfied, she crawled out of her nest and shook out her fur – if she were really covered with twoleg paint, it would have splattered everywhere. The thought made Wrenfeather purr, and she stifled the chuckle in her throat.

Tigerstripe glanced around again. A moment later, she slipped out of the den and was trotting across the clearing. Wrenfeather sat up, following the small, lithe shape moving across the center of the ThunderClan Camp with her eyes. The calico looked as if she'd crept through camp a dozen times, her half-raised tail an obvious sign of nonchalance.

Wrenfeather waited with a twitching tail until the warrior was gone. When she'd left camp, the tabby followed without hesitation. The emptiness of the camp felt strange and almost wrong to Wrenfeather, but she shoved her anxiety away in favor of her concern for Tigerstripe. She was determined to figure out what the she-cat was up to, despite the butterflies swarming her stomach.

And so she followed the calico's scent from the bracken entrance of camp through the forest. She had been trailing her for nearly five minutes before she caught the scent of another cat in the air – a cat that didn't belong to any clan, as it seemed. Without a clan, but clearly not a kittypet. She tested the air again to be sure. No, not a kittypet. A loner. A rogue.

Wrenfeather shoved away her resentment toward the clanless cat. After all, she'd been a loner herself before ThunderClan had found her and her littermates as kittens. She shook her head and refocused. As she stooped in the bracken, she peered through the orangey-red fronds to observe the scene before her. Tigerstripe was sitting beside a half-rotted stump with flicking ears, and although Wrenfeather couldn't see her face, there was a nervous feeling stirring in the tabby's chest.

Out of the bracken came another cat. A she-cat, like Wrenfeather had scented. She was truly beautiful, with long, silky black fur and dazzling green eyes that glimmered in the moonlight. She looked as if she was just about Tigerstripe's size, matching the calico pound for pound. Still, there was a suspicious spark in the stranger's gaze that made Wrenfeather's fur stiffen up – a dishonest, hateful glint in her emerald eyes, and Wrenfeather didn't like it.

Because Wrenfeather never lied.

And she _couldn't stand_ cats who did.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Ebony," Tigerstripe dipped her head. "I've been waiting. Did you bring Drizzle and Blacky?"

Wrenfeather clawed at the ground. _So I was right. These cats do know each other. What is Tigerstripe thinking?_

Ebony purred, "I did," she replied. Her words came out crisp and formal, but there was a twinge of fondness in her voice. It was only a moment later that Wrenfeather noticed the rustling of the bracken behind the loner – two kittens stumbled out of the vegetation, one black, one splotchy and gray. 

The first was larger than the second, but maybe it was his puffy black fur or large golden eyes that made him look twice his size. Sitting next to him was a tiny, ruffled gray scrap staring up at Tigerstripe with green eyes so big they barely fit his face. Wrenfeather stifled a purr at the adorable sight.

The calico dropped to a crouch, inviting the kits closer. "Hey, you two. Did you miss me?" she meowed as the black kit rubbed his head against her chin. She curled a paw over his back and pulled him closer.

"Are you clan leader yet?" the first kit asked the question out of the blue, face so close that the two cats' whiskers touched.

Ebony flicked the kitten with a paw, "Blacky, don't be rude."

"He's fine," Tigerstripe replied, then turned back to Blacky, "Me? Clan leader? No way, little buddy. That's Wrenfeather's job, one day."

The other kitten – who's name must have been Drizzle, if the other was Blacky – tilted his little head, "Isn't Wenfeaver the cat that orders all the other cats around?"

A blank look crossed Tigerstripe's face. Then she broke out into a purr so loud it must have woken every mouse in the forest, "Well, not really. That's Robinheart's job. But Wrenfeather just likes to take the lead – she's good at it. But really, Robinheart is the deputy and Blackstar is the leader."

"What's a deputy again?" Blacky asked, batting at the calico's face. She cuffed back playfully, and Wrenfeather felt a pang of anxiety. _Is she telling these cats all about ThunderClan? Doesn't she know how dangerous that is – probably not from the kits, but from Ebony?_

For a moment Tigerstripe didn't answer, thinking it over. Then she shifted position on the forest floor, "Well, the deputy is the second-in-command. He does what the leader wants, but tells the cats below his rank what to do," she explained.

 _That isn't a bad way to put it, I guess._ Her thoughts were interrupted by Drizzle's little voice, "If Wenfeaver isn't the deputy or leader, why'd you say that it would be her job to order cats around?"

A look of curiosity crossed the warrior's face, "Y'know, Drizzle, you have the mind of a good warrior," she noted, "You must have got it from Cougar. Wrenfeather has always wanted to be leader – that's why I said that she'd be ordering cats around, one day."

But Wrenfeather barely registered what Tigerstripe was saying. The calico's words were still bouncing around inside the tabby's head. _"You must have got it from Cougar?" Not that tom from last green-leaf, surely?_ That nasty cat had been nothing but trouble, and the tabby could feel her fur bristling along her spine at the thought of the tawny-and-white loner. If Tigerstripe had claimed that Drizzle's clever mind came from Cougar, he must have been related to him somehow – perhaps the kittens' father, even. Ebony was clearly the mother. Would Cougar mate a cat like her? It seemed probable, knowing how filthy the opportunistic tomcat often behaved.

Wrenfeather turned her attention back to Tigerstripe, Ebony and the kittens. "Do either of you ever want to be in ThunderClan?" The black rogue was asking.

Drizzle and Blacky glanced at each other, and finally Blacky spoke, "I don't know. What do you do in ThunderClan?" he asked, directing the question toward Tigerstripe.

The warrior blinked, "Well… You wake up in the morning, go out hunting, or out on patrol – that's when cats go out to check on our territory – or on some other job the deputy wants you to do. You share what you catch with the clan, and you fight when you have to. But there's time for playing, napping, and talking too, unless there's a whole lot going on," she explained. The kits stared, as if all this information was too much.

Finally, Drizzle raised his little voice, "That's a lot. Why do you have to check on the territory – patrol, as you put it?"

Ebony and Tigerstripe glanced at each other, and Wrenfeather understood. _Drizzle latched on to that one point throughout Tigerstripe's whole explanation,_ she thought to herself, _and then he asked about it afterward, not interrupting her. More than that, he wanted to know more. That means he's interested in ThunderClan. Tigerstripe and Ebony_ must _realize his potential. I certainly do._

Wrenfeather was yanked out of her thoughts at Drizzle's voice, "Wait – I smell another cat. Ebony, look over there."

The she-cat tensed up. _Snap! That other cat is me!_ Before she could move, all eyes were on her. A moment later, she was staring up at the black she-cat's dazzling emerald eyes. "Is there something I can do for you?" the loner queried.

Immediately, Wrenfeather found herself regretting Drizzle's potential.


End file.
